The Music and Planet Project

Vintage Pictures are an indie rock outfit out of San Antonio, Texas with a whole lot of pizzazz. Cultivating a sound characterized by fast-moving riffs, thick basslines, tight drums, and impassioned vocals, the band evoke big names of modern rock and add a Latin rock twist. 

The band’s latest track “Purple Dino” is a hard-hitting indie punk rock track with creative uses of guitar effects, simple and accessible melodies, and crystal clear production value. What strikes me most about this single is the feeling that it straddles the line between traditional pop punk and modern indie rock. The catchy refrain, for example, feels a bit like a cross between Paramore and The Strokes. The guitar effects feel at some moments like Albert Hammond Jr. and at other times more like Green Day. The tight drums feel influenced by both a heavier Travis Barker-esque style and a mid-2000s Interpol-sounding flavor. Overall, the track seems to draw influence from both of these realms of music and has the ability to appeal to listeners of both genres. 

There is another interesting angle to this band’s sound worth highlighting. In both “Purple Dino” and in past tracks, you can hear a distinct influence of Latin rock (an influence they name in their bio). Take “Bandito” from the band’s 2018 I Need You EP, for example. The chord progression and guitar riffs sound distinctly Latin rock-esque. In “Our Last Dance”, however, the influence of Latin rock is blended with shoe-gazey guitars in a more subtle fashion. It will be interesting and exciting to see how the band continue to incorporate and experiment with meshing the sounds of Latin rock with modern indie and pop punk moving forward. 

Whether or not these genres are what you normally listen to, it’s worth checking out Vintage Pictures and the unique blending of sounds they bring to the table. Stream the latest track Purple Dino here and check out the rest of their catalog while you’re at it.